Journal article

Publication year: 2013

Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B: Biological Sciences

Volume number: 368

Issue number: 1628

ISSN: 0962-8436

eISSN: 1471-2970

Open access status: Green

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0056

Publisher: The Royal Society

Abstract: 
When judging the lightness of objects, the visual system has to take into account many factors such as shading, scene geometry, occlusions or transparency. The problem then is to estimate global lightness based on a number of local samples that differ in luminance. Here, we show that eye fixations play a prominent role in this selection process. We explored a special case of transparency for which the visual system separates surface reflectance from interfering conditions to generate a layered image representation. Eye movements were recorded while the observers matched the lightness of the layered stimulus. We found that observers did focus their fixations on the target layer, and this sampling strategy affected their lightness perception. The effect of image segmentation on perceived lightness was highly correlated with the fixation strategy and was strongly affected when we manipulated it using a gaze-contingent display. Finally, we disrupted the segmentation process showing that it causally drives the selection strategy. Selection through eye fixations can so serve as a simple heuristic to estimate the target reflectance.

Harvard Citation style: Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M. and Gegenfurtner, K. (2013) Selection of visual information for lightness judgements by eye movements, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B: Biological Sciences, 368(1628), Article 20130056. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0056

APA Citation style: Toscani, M., Valsecchi, M., & Gegenfurtner, K. (2013). Selection of visual information for lightness judgements by eye movements. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B: Biological Sciences. 368(1628), Article 20130056. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0056